Nightmares and Moonlight
by Mimms
Summary: Jack couldn't sleep and upon leaving his room in the middle of the night, he sees Alice sitting on an open window sill, her feet dangling outside. Company, that's what he needed. If only to push the nightmares away for a little while. This takes place shorty after the movie ends, so no spoilers if you haven't seen it. One-shot.


**Helloo! If you can't tell, I'm terrible at titles, haha. ;P So I wrote this up the night after seeing Rise of the Guardians. Call me a dork, I honestly don't care. I loved that movie.**

**Anywho, nothing belongs to me except for Alice, whom I made up. **

**And and and, just so you know, Alice and Jack are not a pairing. I actually have another oc that I made up for her. She and Jack are just friends. Maybe someday I will post more about Alice and Samuel (that's his name :P) but for now, this is all I have written for RotG. Hope you like. :D**

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Alice was all dressed up with no place to go. But she didn't mind, not in the least.

After fixing her braid with its long silver chain woven in, Alice wandered the dark halls of North's workshop. It was late and she should've been in bed, but she preferred to be out and about, admittedly_, during the darker hours of the day. She preferred the Man in the moon's company to anyone else's as well. She walked, not really paying any attention to where she was going until a window caught her eye. It was perfect. The Man in the Moon wasn't directly in front of the window, but he was nearby, casting his soft silver glow partially onto the window sill.

Alice pushed the window up and swung herself up onto the window sill, her legs dangling outside while she sat. Goosebumps rose of her bare arms and legs as a gentle, but cold breeze brushed across her skin. Alice never minded the cold. It was comforting; something that would never change and she liked to have at least one thing in her life that would never change. The light from the moon was comforting too; like a night light and Alice closed her eyes, enjoying the quiet and the moment. She briefly wondered what it would be like to fly, but quickly dismissed the idea when she felt the gentle urge to jump off the window sill and find out. Alice opened her eyes again and looked down at her small hands, folded neatly in her lap. They were white as snow in the moon light and ever so slightly shimmery as well, but that was just the light.

The breeze turned and blew away from her, distracting her for a short moment. There was the softest touch brushing across her hands and she looked down to find the Nightmare dust was gathering in a pool in the folds of her skirt. She reached down and plucked a loose strand from amidst the dust and began to spin. She pulled the thread through two of her fingers, her thumb and her pointer finger. Where her fingertips were pressed lightly together, faint silver sparks fell into her lap like shooting stars and dissolved in the pool of dark shimmering dust. Once it had passed through her fingertips, the thread turned gold, looking quite like Sandy's dust did. Sparkling softly and glowing fainting.

Someone stirred restlessly in one of the rooms behind Alice and she paused her spinning to look over her shoulder in search of the person besides her who was awake at such a late hour. Her eyes, well accustomed to seeing in the dark, spotted a thread of nightmare dust creeping out from under one of the doors towards her. Her eyes took in the subtle designs carved and painted on the doors; this one bore a few delicate snowflakes decorating its surface. The door opened, and Jack Frost wearily stepped out into the hall, his ever present staff held in a white knuckled hand. Alice hadn't realized that she had walked in a complete circle around North's workshop. She was right back where she had started, in the hallway where everyone's rooms were.

"Jack?" she asked softly, so as not to startle him. He jumped anyway though and whipped around to face her, his staff held out defensively. Even in the dim light in the hall, she could see the shadows that were smudged under his eyes. His breathing was raspy and shallow.

"Jack. Jack, it's me; Alice." Alice kept her voice quiet to keep from waking anyone else up and also because Jack looked terrified and she knew from experience that a soft voice was less likely to frighten someone. Jack seemed to snap out of his dazed state and he smiled at Alice, but his heart wasn't in it. She carefully scooted over on the window sill.

"Come sit, Jack," she said, patting the spot beside her. He nodded and moved to sit beside her, his legs dangling outside the window, his foot occasionally brushing hers. Alice started to spin again. The thread grew longer and as it did, it would itself around a matching golden spool. Alice said nothing and neither did Jack. Finally Alice took a breath and spoke.

"Nightmare?" she asked gently. The last thing she wanted was to seem condescending, especially since she too was plagued with nightmares, just not as often. And not for the same reason. He acknowledged her question and answered it with a nod.

"Me too," she told him. He gave her a surprised look. "But mine aren't vengeance from Pitch. Nightmares have plagued me for years, even before, when I was human."

"How do you get them to stop?" he asked, his voice rough like sandpaper and Alice realized how big a toll these dreams were taking on him.

"When I was young, my sister and I shared a bed. We were twins you see and she the older of us. She was always wake me up if I was having one and when I was awake, she would hold me close and tell me stories. A lot of them were about moon faeries. I liked faeries back then. And the moon." Alice blushed, feeling a little silly and desperately hoped that Jack wouldn't poke fun at her for that. She peeked at him shyly and found that he was watching the moon. He didn't poke fun or even look like he would and after a moment she continued.

"Now, I spin them away and they stay away for a little while. Usually at least for the night." She stopped, then gave Jack an apologetic smile. "I'm not being much help, am I?"

Jack shrugged at her and true smile lit up his face. His gaze rested on the moon for a moment longer, then turned to her.

"Show me what you're doing," he said. Alice was pleased and happily surprised to see that he was genuinely curious about her spinning. So she showed him. He watched her spin and asked hundreds of questions. Alice was glad that a child still lived inside of him. She had long since lost her own inner child. Finally, Jack seemed to run out of questions, all but one.

"What do you do with it after you've spun it?"

"I give it to Sandy. He says that it is easier to make certain dreams with my thread some times and vice versa other times. Why?"

"Just wondering," Jack answered dismissively. He was quiet for a moment, once again studied the moon. Alice stopped spinning to tilt her head and look at Jack's profile. She wondered what he would've been like if he had been able to grow up and start a family. Then jack spoke and she forgot about that thought of hers.

"Has the Man in the moon spoken to you recently?" Jack asked turning to meet her eyes.

"No," she admitted slowly. "But he led me to Sandy and all of you so I suppose I am alright with his silence for now. What about you?" Jack shook his head and his shoulders slumped. Alice smiled a little sadly and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. Jack sighed and leaned his head on her shoulder while Alice shifted to rest her cheek against the top of his head. Then she sighed quietly too. Neither of them spoke or made another sound for a long moment that lasted almost ten minutes.

When Jack began to doze off, Alice decided that it was time he went back to bed. She held him up with one arm around his waist and got one foot over the window sill back inside when she froze. She heard a board creak as someone down the hall stepped out of their room. The person then moved out of the shadows that draped the farther end of the hall and Alice breathed a sigh of relief. It was North.

He walked towards her and gently picked Jack up in his arms, allowing Alice to climb in from her window perch without falling. Alice got down and closed the window. She followed North into Jack's room where the larger man settled Jack down on his bed and pulled the covers up over him.

"Thank you, North," Alice murmured.

North nodded and left the room, leaving the door open. Moonlight filtered in, casting a faint glow on the foot of Jack's bed. Alice sat on the edge of his bed and gently stroked Jack's snowy white head. His nightmare started and Nightmare dust began to swirl and gather above his head. Before it could form though, Alice plucked a loose thread and began to spin it away. The nightmare started to crumble and fall apart and as it unraveled, Alice caught each thread as they appeared. Jack unconsciously curled up closer to Alice, his body tense and fistfuls of his quilt clenched tightly in his hands. She paused for a second to pet his head again and he relaxed, but only a little. She finished spinning his nightmare and Jack relaxed completely, finally able to sleep deeply and peacefully. Alice stroked his head one last time, then carefully eased herself away from him and off the bed. She leaned down to kiss his forehead gently, a sweet motherly gesture, then slipped out of his room. She closed his door partially behind her, leaving one last sliver of moonlight lighting on his peaceful face.

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**Also, by now this is probably a Mary Sue idea, but I couldn't get it out of my head so if all you're going to do is tell me what a Mary Sue this is, please don't bother. But if you have something nice to say, I'd love for you to leave a comment! Au revoir et joyeux Noel. :) {In other words, Merry Christmas}**

**~ Rebekah**


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